By now, we know what a resume is all about and what should it essentially contain. But remember, a recruiter does not spend too much time browsing through your resume. So, your resume does not have too much time to make an impact. As such, a badly written resume can completely sabotage your chances of landing that perfect job. So, ensuring that your resume is well written and is eye catching is important. One of the most basic things you can do to ensure that your resume gets the attention it deserves is format your resume well. The tips given here can be handy when formatting your resume. Click here to get free resume samples and format.

Present your work history in an order. Ensure that your work history is listed in a particular order. You can either use a chronological series or in a functional order. Ensure that the work experience that is most relevant to the job opening is at the clearly visible.

Do not be monotonous. Try and avoid long paragraphs and lengthy bullet lists. Try to segregate information under different heads so that scanning your resume is easy.

Avoid too much white space. Use white spaces to distinguish between different sections, but do not overdo it. It will just add to the number of pages and a recruiter may not take the pain to go through the entire bunch of pages.

Use a readable font. Courier, Times New Roman, Helvetica, and Arial are safe bets. Keep the font size anywhere between 10-13. Never use decorative or cursive fonts as they affect the readability of text.

Use proper spacing: Never use double spaces between words and use just a single line space between lines. This ensures that the text is legible. Too much or too less space between words and lines impact readability.

Use margins to give your resume a neat look. The margins can vary from 0.5 inches to 1 inch. Also, remember to justify the text in the body so that the content looks neat and attractive.

Avoid using a table with multiple columns. If you have to use a table, stick to 2-3 columns. Too many multi-column tables give your resume a monotonous look.

Don’t include graphics, background images or pictures in your resume. These give your resume an unprofessional look and also make it heavy and difficult to send through e-mails.

Be concise. Ensure that you have just the relevant information in your resume and not a complete laundry list of what all you have done in life. A lengthy resume decreases your chances of getting an interview just because the recruiter may not find time to go through your resume.

Ensure that there are no spelling or grammatical errors in your resume. This gives a bad impression and is unacceptable.

Apart from the points mentioned above, remember to be conservative with words.(Also read: 4 steps to the right resume format ) Ensure that you have just the relevant information in your resume and not a complete laundry list of what all you have done in life. A lengthy resume decreases your chances of getting an interview just because the recruiter may not find time to go through your resume. Keep these points in your mind when creating a resume and see how the number of interview calls you receive go up. (Also read: How to get interview calls)

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